


Mission Failure

by alecthefanboy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A LOT of Angst, Canon Typical Violence, M/M, a lot of injuries, mostly just fighting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-03 20:30:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16332947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alecthefanboy/pseuds/alecthefanboy
Summary: They had failed. It was supposed to be a simple mission. They were wrong.





	Mission Failure

They had failed. It was supposed to be a simple mission, to just clear a few Galra soldiers off of a planet and then make an alliance and go back to the Castle-ship. They had only taken Red and Blue, figuring most of the fighting would take place on foot. They were wrong. So wrong.

They didn’t know exactly how it all played out, it was such a blur, but reinforcements showed up, hundreds, maybe thousands, they swarmed the sky. They did their best to try and dodge and evade, to retreat, “get back to the castle!” Shiro screamed, not shouted, through the comms. Hearing the break and worry in Shiro’s voice didn’t help the rest of them, especially when they already knew they were overpowered.

It all happened so quickly.

Hunk was knocked out first, getting blasted in the side by a Galra laser gun when he jumped in front of Pidge to shield a shot heading straight for her back. His scream of pain echoed through the comm link and left everyone shaking. 

Pidge turned and cried out for him to “Hang in there, buddy, we’ll get you out of here!” but as she swung her bayard at the Galra who had incapacitated her best friend, she was slice from the side, a deep gash opening in her side, and she crumpled to her knees, gripping at the wound, groaning painfully. 

Lance turned in time to get rid of the alien who was about to give her a finishing blow. He was panicking. There were so many of them and they weren’t prepared. 

“Defense, guys, we just have to play defense and get back to the lions right now, we need to get out of here,” He yelled as he shot down a few more approaching Galra but it was no use because they just kept coming, they were endless. 

While Lance ran over to try and get Hunk and Pidge up and over to the lions, Keith was working with Shiro and Allura to make a path to get back to the lions. When the first few ships started to show up, Keith thought it would be fine, that theyd be able to handle it, but he thought wrong. So goddamn wrong. He sliced and slashed at any Galra that came his way while Shiro fought them off barehanded and Allura used her whip to throw them against each other.

Lance’s voice, weary and breathless, came through their helmets. “Guys, I need help. Pidge can barely stand and I can’t carry Hunk by myself.”

Keith looked at Shiro, who nodded, sprinting off in the direction of the other paladins, dodging and hitting soldiers as he went by. 

“I’m on my way, Lance,” Shiro assured as he ran.

Keith and Allura were side-by-side, working individually and together in a way they never had before but the pressure of the entire situation seemed to focus their minds in a new way. They were so close to the lions, just a hundred more feet and they’d be in Blue and Allura would- 

But then Allura screamed out next to Keith, a soldier had come in fast behind her and took her right arm in hand, wrenching it in an unnatural way and even among all the chaos around them, Keith heard the chilling snap of bone and the pained look on Allura’s face haunted him. Before the Galra could yank her away, he grabbed an arm around her waist, pulling her away as he sliced the Galra’s arms off. 

“Can you walk?” he asked, even as he continued dragging her towards the lions, they couldn’t waste time but she nodded weakly, her working arm wrapped around his shoulders for support.

Lance and Shiro had been able to heft Hunk up in their arms. Hunk was between them, his feet dragging on the ground, head lolling forward limply. Shiro punched and kicked at approaching soldiers as best he could and Lance did his best to use his free hand to shoot at the oncoming forces. They were getting closer to the lions, and he could already hear Red, hear the worry and concern. Pidge was in front of them, doing her best to dodge and jab at anyone in their way so they could make it quicker. Red leaned down and opened her mouth and Pidge stumbled in first, falling to her knees and crawling the rest of the way in before collapsing completely. 

Lance and Shiro were right behind and just before they stepped in, Lance felt Hunk’s full weight start to pull him down. He looked to the side to see Shiro with gashes on his legs and arms and a knife sticking out of his shoulder. He had been pulled away by another fighter but managed to knock them out, not before getting a rather hard blow to the head. He immediately went back over to Lance to get him and Hunk into Red and out of there. 

Keith’s voice was breathless and ragged when he asked “You guys safe?” and Shiro managed an affirmative “Yes” as he collapsed onto the ground, holding the shoulder that still had the knife sticking out of it. Lance made sure Hunk was in a comfortable position on the ground before he jumped into the piloting seat and got them out of there, heading towards the Castle, clearing a path of Galra fighter ships as he went.

Allura was in so much pain, Keith could tell, and she obviously couldnt pilot well with only one arm, but Blue was understanding, and wanted to keep her paladin safe so she followed close behind Red as they went back to the Castle. 

As soon as they made it into the hangar, Allura stood up and stumbled over to Keith.

“You need to get me to the control room, we need to wormhole out of here.” 

He nodded and wrapped an arm around her waist to support her again but Allura shook her head. 

“You’ll have to carry me, it’ll be faster, I’m moving too slow from the pain,” she said through gritted teeth.

Keith nodded again and picked her up as gently as possible, as to not jostle her broken arm and then booked it. Ran as fast as he could because he could hear Coran’s frantic voice saying that the shields were low and that they couldn’t take much more. He reached the control room in record time and placed Allura gently at her post, helping her place her limp arm on one pillar, then stepping back. 

She fired up the wormhole immediately, her face pinching in concentration and then they were out. Free from the incredible onslaught they had just endured. Escaped from the complete failure that had been. As soon as they were safe, she grabbed her hurt arm, grimacing. “Coran, could you fire up some healing pods? I believe we are going to need them.” 

Coran nodded and said “Of course, Princess,” before heading off to the med bay. 

Shiro’s voice, shakier than Keith had ever heard it but still strong, came through his helmet. 

“Keith, we need your help down here. Hunk is unconscious and I’m not strong enough to help Lance carry him right now.” 

Keith was already on his way and gave out a gruff “On my way” as he ran back down to the hangar.

Lance was crouched down by Pidge, helping to apply pressure to her side wound to staunch the bleeding while he waited for Keith. Shiro shakily got to his feet and help out the arm that didnt have a knife in the shoulder to Pidge. 

“I’ll help her, Lance, you worry about, Hunk,” he said as he helped Pidge to her and held her hand as they limped out of the lion together. 

Lance’s eyes were wide and he could feel tears creeping up because this was all so much, he never thought things would go this wrong. He crawled over to Hunk, his face paling at the amount of blood around him, and the tears that were creeping up began to flow out. He tugged off his helmet and tossed it to the side and he ripped off the blood soaked gloves of his suit before pressing his hands heavily into the large wound (god, it was so big) on Hunk’s side, crying freely. 

“You got this, Hunk, okay, you’re gonna stay with me. Keith and I will get you to the healing pod and then you’ll get all fixed up. “You’re so strong, buddy, you got this, just please, please,” he choked on a sob and rested his forehead on Hunk’s head. “...just stay alive, buddy.”

Lance could sense Keith through Red before he saw him, he felt his lion’s relief at the fact that Keith was relatively unharmed which was good to hear, but Lance was stressed out and on edge and fearing for his best friend’s goddamn life, so with tears in his eyes, he looked up at Keith and sobbed out, ”What took you so long?” 

But everything was so messed up, Keith was too frazzled to give a snide remark back, he just shook his head profusely, apologizing repeatedly, saying he tried to get down here so fast, and god theres so much blood, and c’mon hunk we got you, as him and Lance worked together to life him up. Keith slipped his arms under Hunk’s armpits while Lance gripped both his legs between his arms and torso, his hands supporting some of the weight by gripping onto Hunk’s calves. 

He continued to talk to Hunk on their journey up to the med bay.

“You’ll be okay, Hunk, we’re going to the med bay now, and then you’ll get in the healing pod and be out in no time and then after we can hang out in the kitchen and make new recipes out of those weird alien ingredients you find and you can go do all that techy stuff you like with Pidge and, buddy, you better bet your ass, as soon as you get out of that healing pod, I’m gonna give you the best hug you’ve ever had in your life, we’re almost there, its gonna be okay.”

Lance continued to talk and in a normal situation Keith probably would’ve gotten annoyed and told him to shut up but this wasn’t normal, this was the farthest from normal because their friend was basically dying in their arms, so Lance’s soothing voice and mantra of “it’ll be okay” actually helped a lot to beat down Keith’s anxiety and worry.

Once they made it to the med bay, Allura, Pidge, and Shiro were already in pods and Coran was standing in the middle, worriedly tapping his foot and as soon as he heard Keith and Lance come in he went over to help them with Hunk. The three of them managed to get him into the healing pod and Coran started setting it up. 

As soon as they weren’t holding Hunk anymore, Keith and Lance looked at each other and then pulled one another into a tight hug. This was never something they would normally do, but as stated, this wasn’t normal and they were just teenagers but one of their friends almost died and three others got badly injured and the stress was just so much and they needed something solid to hold onto, something to assure them it would be okay, it was okay.

Lance could feel Keith shaking and gripped him tighter in response, his hand rubbing small circles in his lower back where the armor wasn’t there, and Keith was thankful, because it helped, helped to fight the anxiety that was slowly taking over his mind as he thought of all the ways this could’ve gone if they hadn’t made it out in time or hadn’t acted so quickly to help their friends. 

As they stood there in a tight embrace, they felt another pair of arms work their way around them and squeezed them gently, and a hand going to their heads and ruffling their hair. 

“So glad you boys made it out of there. I can’t even think what would’ve happened if one of you had gotten too hurt to help the others. But we made it through and everything is gonna be alright,” Coran reassured, stroking their hair calmingly, comfortingly. Lance smiled up at him and wrapped an arm around him and Keith did the same and they stood that way for awhile. 

After a bit, Coran patted their heads and stepped back. “I’ve gotta go check the repairs the Castle needs done after that little skirmish, you boys just stay here and keep a watch on everyone, okay?” 

They both nodded and Coran smiled softly at them, before squeezing them once more, then walking off. 

Lance sunk to the floor heavily, bringing his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them and gazing up at his friends, contained within the pods. 

Keith slumped down next to him, cross-legged and staring at his hands, replaying their screams and all the ways it could’ve gone worse, so much worse. So caught up in his thoughts, it took him a second to register the weight on his shoulder and that the weight was Lance’s head. He glanced over but Lance was still staring at the healing pods, glancing between them.

Keith looked down again, then slowly leaned his head to rest against Lance’s closing his eyes. 

Yes, they failed the mission. Yes, it could’ve gone worse. But they were successful in saving their friends and it would all be okay. And that was all that mattered.

**Author's Note:**

> hope u enjoyed the angst. hook me up on tumblr @/greggoryyy


End file.
